Chapter Summaries

The Obsidian Martial Arts Hall defeated the White Feather Gang in a brutal deathmatch, shocking the wilderness gangs with its willingness to sacrifice its own members. Lin Qi secured a contract granting the Hall sixty percent of Crimson Moon Mountain’s Energy Vein, and the chapter left the Hall poised to reshape the wilderness while facing possible retaliation.

• Ye Qinglu and Luo Wu Shang killed Heavy Shield Atreus and Sky-Shattering Hammer Bort after One Leaf Floating Cloud and two other Gray Robe Gang members sacrificed themselves in battle.
• Fischer, Flo, and Hou Fei reacted with shock and wariness toward the Gray Robe Gang and Lin Qi’s ruthless methods.
• Lin Qi worried that the players’ corpses and later revivals could expose the Gray Robe Gang’s secrets, then watched the deathmatch end in victory for his side.
• Lin Qi asked Varrod to honor their agreement granting the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall sixty percent of Crimson Moon Mountain’s Energy Vein, and Varrod agreed to sign a new contract.
• Adelay acknowledged Lin Qi’s fighters as rare talents and left Crimson Moon Mountain after saying he would remember the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
• Lin Qi signed the contract as the gathered gangs recognized the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall as a rising major force that could transform the wilderness.

After Obsidian Martial Arts Hall’s victory at Crimson Moon Mountain improved life and prospects for human drifters, Qin Mu brought Lin Qi the hall’s new wilderness ranking. The hall ranked forty-second, granting it major new rights in the suburbs and sending the abandoned district into an uproar.

• Drifters repairing Obsidian Martial Arts Hall discussed how its victory had brought protection, jobs, and hopes of reducing dangerous military-service quotas.
• Qin Mu arrived at the hall, and players speculated that his visit might signal a new Crimson Moon Mountain storyline.
• Fang Zhen considered recruiting professional players from Mecha Continent to strengthen his group’s position against rival guilds.
• Qin Mu gave Lin Qi a ranking token and announced that Obsidian Martial Arts Hall had placed forty-second among the wilderness gangs.
• Drifters and gang members across the abandoned district received the new rankings, provoking an uproar.

Obsidian Martial Arts Hall’s unexpected forty-second-place ranking gave it trading rights in the suburbs, thanks to a human senior’s influence in the Martial Artist Association. An Association Martial Artist then arrived to deliver the hall’s first mandatory assignment, which left Qin Mu suspecting Feng Gelin had a grudge against Lin Qi.

• Varrod and the Green Sparrow Gang’s leaders were stunned by Obsidian Martial Arts Hall’s ranking, and Flo volunteered to oversee Crimson Moon Mountain to protect its Energy Ore and approach the hall.
• Qin Mu told Lin Qi that a human senior had helped Obsidian Martial Arts Hall enter the top fifty and warned him to keep the favor secret.
• Feng Gelin, a Half-Scale Race Martial Artist and Association steward, arrived at Obsidian Martial Arts Hall and left Lin Qi documents detailing the hall’s assigned task.
• Lin Qi examined the Association’s assignment, and Qin Mu asked whether he had previously angered Feng Gelin.

Lin Qi learned that Obsidian Martial Arts Hall had been assigned a dangerous mandatory transport mission, apparently through Feng Gelin’s influence, and Qin Mu offered to help him complete it. As Feng Gelin prepared to advance within the Association, Lin Qi finished restoring the martial arts hall and unlocked a new authority.

• Qin Mu explained that the mission to transport supplies to Maple Forest Town was dangerous and normally suited to a top ten wilderness gang, and that failure would cost Obsidian Martial Arts Hall its Association authorization.
• Lin Qi said he had never offended Feng Gelin, while Qin Mu offered to recruit experienced fighters and help complete the mission.
• Feng Gelin admitted that he had arranged the mission after taking three Energy Crystals from the White Feather Gang and ordered his disciple to collect two more.
• Lin Qi watched the restoration progress reach 100 percent and received a Coach B6 Training Machine, capacity for 40 more players, and the option to activate Level 2 Hidden Authority.

After restoring Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, Lin Qi gained Level 1 Administrator Privilege and discovered new ways to manage and upgrade the game and its buildings. He learned that expanding the hall’s player capacity and training facilities required substantial resources, and the chapter ended as he examined the privilege’s final function.

• Lin Qi examined his Level 2 Merit-Based Admission Privilege and found that it added one daily extraction, one assessment category, and the ability to choose an experience inheritance.
• The system granted Lin Qi Level 1 Administrator Privilege and activated missions to build an Advanced Martial Arts Dojo and reach five hundred thousand online reservations.
• Lin Qi discovered that Administrator Privilege let him access Blue Star's High Martial Descent, its ratings and forum, and publish official announcements.
• Lin Qi learned that he could spend Energy Ore to renovate a rest lodge, Beginner Training Room, or Beginner Gravity Room, while his current player-management limit remained five hundred.
• Lin Qi reviewed the requirements for upgrading to Level 2 Administrator Privilege and building an Advanced Martial Arts Dojo, then turned to the final Administrator Privilege function.

Lin Qi upgraded player apparel and fused the Prairie Fire Body Cultivation Method with the Soul Shocking Breathing Technique, then began a twelve-hour game update to roll out the changes. The announcement revealed Version 1.1, forty additional player slots, and the Crimson Moon Tide expansion pack.

• Lin Qi discovered that Level 1 Basic Apparel could disguise players from everyone except him and the players, while special apparel offered customizable abilities for Energy Ore.
• Lin Qi decided to charge Inner Disciples three hundred kilograms of Energy Ore for special apparel rather than pay for it himself.
• Lin Qi used his Level 2 privilege to fuse the Prairie Fire Body Cultivation Method into the Soul Shocking Breathing Technique, creating a stronger Intermediate Martial Artist-level method.
• Lin Qi chose to upgrade all players' basic apparel, requiring them to log off for twelve hours, and the system began forcing players offline.
• Lin Qi announced Version 1.1 on the official website, promising forty more player slots, bug fixes, optimized body cultivation methods, new martial arts school functions, and the Crimson Moon Tide expansion pack.

After High Martial Descent announced a dangerous new region where players could mine and buy land, guilds began planning to secure and defend it. Outlander Gunslinger persuaded Chen Ya to try the game by revealing that Li Ranxing played it, and she entered its physical fitness assessment, which required timed digging.

• High Martial Descent announced that players could explore Crimson Moon Mountain, mine Energy Ore, and purchase land, while losing newbie protection and risking their equipment upon death.
• Fang Zhen and Twilight of the Gods discussed how their group might defend Crimson Moon Mountain, while Luo Wu Shang ordered Heavenly Might to secure ten of forty slots and establish a foothold there.
• Outlander Gunslinger told Chen Ya that High Martial Descent had helped him improve and that Li Ranxing played it, prompting Chen Ya to purchase the game and take its entry assessment.
• Chen Ya chose the physical fitness test and discovered that it required her to dig the largest space she could within six hours.

Lin Qi developed Crimson Moon Mountain into a fortified base and considered turning it into a transit market, while players’ mining confused and alarmed the Three-Eyed Race drifters. The chapter ended with a convoy arriving at the mountain and its passengers stunned by the changes.

• Players mined Energy Ore in large numbers, leading Three-Eyed Race drifters to fear that Obsidian Martial Arts Hall had brought them there to compete for mining work.
• Lin Qi directed the drifters to unload construction materials and realized he needed someone who spoke the common tongue to manage Crimson Moon Mountain.
• Lin Qi assessed Crimson Moon Mountain as a potential transit market and planned to build lodging and hire more drifters to expand it.
• Lin Qi noted that the players’ strength had grown rapidly and that he had become a Quasi-Martial Artist, leaving him confident in the mountain’s security.
• A convoy arrived at Crimson Moon Mountain, where Flo and a four-armed man stared in shock at its fortified gates and guarded entrance.

Flo and Abner arrived at Crimson Moon Mountain and discovered that Obsidian Martial Arts Hall had turned it into a thriving transit bazaar. Abner was stunned by the hall’s scale and by its Advanced Apprentices working in the mines.

• Hero Wild stopped Heavenly Might players from targeting Flo’s convoy and welcomed Flo, deputy leader of the Green Sparrow Gang, into Crimson Moon Mountain.
• Flo realized that Obsidian Martial Arts Hall was building a transit bazaar, a move that could challenge the suburban gangs’ control of trade.
• Flo told Abner that the hall was difficult to compare with the Demon Star Gang, but kept its backing and potential to himself.
• Flo and Abner entered Crimson Moon Mountain and saw thousands of vagrants and more than a hundred market buildings along the mountain path.
• Abner watched Advanced Apprentice players carry Energy Ore out of the mines and was shocked that Obsidian Martial Arts Hall had them mining.

At Crimson Moon Mountain, Abner saw Advanced Apprentices from the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall mining and concluded that the hall was far more powerful than Flo had described. Flo introduced Abner to Lin Qi, who had recently become a Quasi-Martial Artist, and Abner proposed that they monopolize the trade route between Myriad Star City and City of Light Chasing.

• Abner witnessed Advanced Apprentices mining and asked Flo to introduce him to the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall’s leader, offering Flo an extra five percent commission on future Energy Ore deals.
• Flo agreed and led Abner to Lin Qi, whom he found directing the loading of Energy Ore for transport.
• Flo was stunned to sense that Lin Qi had advanced to Quasi-Martial Artist in only a few days.
• Flo introduced Abner as a deputy gang leader of the Demon Star Gang, one of Myriad Star City’s top wilderness gangs.
• Abner greeted Lin Qi and proposed joining forces to monopolize the trade route between Myriad Star City and City of Light Chasing.

Lin Qi negotiated with Abner to let the Demon Star Gang establish a shop and warehouse at Crimson Moon Mountain in exchange for monopolizing the trade route between Myriad Star City and City of Light Chasing. After returning to Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, Lin Qi learned from Luo Qi that the White Feather Gang was blocking the hall from receiving suburban transport commissions, threatening the new shop’s supply of goods.

• Lin Qi agreed to let the Demon Star Gang sell up to ten low-priced goods unique to Myriad Star City at Crimson Moon Mountain, and Abner promised to begin raiding rival convoys on the trade route.
• Lin Qi gave Abner a map and offered the Demon Star Gang two prime plots for its shop and warehouse, contingent on their cooperation.
• Lin Qi returned to Obsidian Martial Arts Hall with Energy Ore and found new players training under the Coach B6 Training Machine, while their limited ways to earn points pushed them toward reaching Apprentice-level.
• Lin Qi spoke with Luo Qi, who had secured a three-story shop in the busy district for one hundred thousand bits a month.
• Luo Qi told Lin Qi that the White Feather Gang had warned suburban businesses not to commission Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, leaving the hall with few and dangerous transport jobs and threatening the shop’s stock.

Lin Qi explained to Luo Qi how wilderness gangs used their influence over transport contracts, then revealed that the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall’s new shop would recruit students for martial arts training rather than sell goods. The shop was set to open within two days, leaving Luo Qi stunned by Lin Qi’s plan.

• Luo Qi told Lin Qi that powerful wilderness gangs influenced suburban businesses by controlling transport commissions, and that reporting their coercion had cost her her job and arm.
• Lin Qi recognized that the White Feather Gang’s pressure on transport companies had left the weaker Obsidian Martial Arts Hall with few options.
• Luo Qi said the shop had been rented and prepared, with two employees hired, and could open within two days, but worried that the hall had no worthwhile products to sell.
• Lin Qi told Luo Qi to open the shop as planned and recruit newcomers to learn martial arts at the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
• Luo Qi froze and asked Lin Qi whether he was serious about teaching martial arts.

Lin Qi launched a high-risk, high-reward quest for players to teach Apprentice-level martial skills, hoping to trigger a powerful martial skill fusion. Two days later, Obsidian Shop opened and drew curious visitors, while Luo Shuangyan and her friend entered to look around.

• Lin Qi agreed that Luo Qi would promote the martial arts hall while preparing a weapon shop, then triggered the hidden quest 'Martial Arts Not Lightly Transmitted.'
• Lin Qi posted a teaching quest that offered players generous rewards for instructing locals in Crushing Stone Fist or Leopard Shadow Steps, with a matching penalty for failure.
• Chen Ya saw the quest as a chance to catch up to Li Ranxing, and newcomer players frantically trained to qualify before it opened.
• Luo Qi opened Obsidian Shop two days later, but its steep martial arts lesson prices drove customers away; Isaac dismissed the venture and recalled his observer.
• Luo Shuangyan's lively school friend pulled her into Obsidian Shop to see what it sold.

Luo Qi brought her sister Luo Shuangyan and her friend Xiao Ling to the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, where Xiao Ling decided to take a Crushing Stone Fist lesson. Lin Qi presented eight instructors, and Xiao Ling chose Chen Ya.

• Xiao Ling visited Luo Qi’s shop with Luo Shuangyan and learned that Luo Qi planned to offer custom equipment, including A6 Grade Armor.
• Xiao Ling offered to pay for a Crushing Stone Fist lesson despite the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall’s high fees, and Luo Qi agreed to accompany her.
• Luo Qi and Xiao Ling arrived at the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall and saw players practicing under the guidance of a Mechanical Person.
• Lin Qi introduced eight intermediate-apprentice instructors and invited Xiao Ling to choose one.
• Xiao Ling selected Chen Ya as her instructor.

At the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, Chen Ya taught Xiao Ling Crushing Stone Fist using vitality guidance and intensive practice. Xiao Ling finished the lesson with a beginner proficiency of 36% as Chen Ya brought her to Instructor Number One for assessment.

• Lin Qi assigned Chen Ya to teach Xiao Ling, while Luo Qi worried that the apprentice-level instructor might injure the young student.
• Chen Ya explained that her teaching method differed from standard instruction and had Xiao Ling memorize Crushing Stone Fist’s techniques before practicing.
• Chen Ya reinforced Xiao Ling’s arm with her vitality, guiding her through repeated punches before having her match the vitality path herself.
• After more than two hours of instruction, Chen Ya brought Xiao Ling to Instructor Number One for assessment as the players and Luo Qi gathered to watch.
• Xiao Ling punched Instructor Number One, which assessed her Crushing Stone Fist at 36% beginner proficiency.

After Xiao Ling made extraordinary progress under Chen Ya’s instruction, Lin Qi completed a hidden quest and fused Sword Light Slash with Lightning Palm to learn Thunderous Flash. As a convoy carrying Energy Ore returned to Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, Yakro’s armed group prepared to ambush it.

• Xiao Ling reached 36% entry-level after one lesson with Chen Ya and immediately booked another session, while Luo Qi decided to bring Luo Shuangyan for instruction.
• Lin Qi received a forced martial skill fusion and a new quest to help people of this world become martial artists.
• Lin Qi fused Luo Wu Shang’s Sword Light Slash with his Lightning Palm and learned the proficient-level Advanced Martial Artist skill Thunderous Flash.
• Lin Qi resolved to reward players who created powerful martial skills and considered Thunderous Flash strong enough to challenge a martial artist.
• Fang Zhen and Li Ranxing led a convoy of players hauling mined Energy Ore toward Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
• Yakro and more than fifty armed companions prepared to attack the sixteen-person convoy on behalf of the White Feather Gang.

Yakro’s Wanderers ambushed Fang Zhen’s convoy, but Fang Zhen and his companions revealed the trap was their chance to fight and recover valuable arrows. Their expert archers decimated the attackers as they retreated, until Gluttonous Villain and the surviving Wanderers surrounded them at close range.

• Yakro’s Wanderers split into ambush teams and waited for the convoy to enter bow range.
• Fang Zhen and Outlander Gunslinger noticed the ambush, and Fang Zhen ordered the players to spread away from the vehicles and attack.
• The Wanderer archers fired B1 Grade Arrows, and the players risked themselves to collect the valuable ammunition.
• Fang Zhen, Li Ranxing, Outlander Gunslinger, and Peerless One Shot used Charged Shot to kill all fourteen archers in two volleys.
• Yakro and the surviving Wanderers charged the four archers, losing nearly half their force before surrounding Fang Zhen’s group at close range.
• Gluttonous Villain lunged at Li Ranxing with his A6-class spear.

Li Ranxing and the other divine archers revealed their close-combat strength and defeated the Wanderers surrounding Obsidian Martial Arts Hall. They spared the badly wounded Yakro after she claimed to have vital intelligence, then brought her back to the hall as a possible special-plot captive.

• Li Ranxing used Spear Aura to battle the Gluttonous Villain, while Fang Zhen and the other divine archers overwhelmed the Wanderers' Quasi-Martial Artists.
• Fang Zhen and the Outlander Gunslinger killed the Gluttonous Villain, and Yakro realized the battle had turned against her.
• The Outlander Gunslinger and Fang Zhen wounded Yakro, who begged for her life and offered crucial intelligence about Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
• Fang Zhen's group suspected Yakro's language and offer indicated a special plot, so they decided to take her to the hall master.
• Fang Zhen's group eliminated the remaining Wanderers, collected supplies from the battlefield, and returned to Obsidian Martial Arts Hall with Yakro.

Fang Zhen returned to Obsidian Martial Arts Hall with valuable loot and the captured bandit leader Yakro. Yakro warned Lin Qi that the Great Ape Gang would attack Crimson Moon Mountain within a day, leaving the hall facing an imminent threat.

• Fang Zhen and his team returned to Obsidian Martial Arts Hall with two transport trucks, high-grade equipment, and a bound Three-Eyed Race woman, prompting envy and speculation among the players.
• Fang Zhen recruited several Apprentice-level players for Dawn Squad by offering discounted equipment and loans of A5 Grade Weapons.
• Fang Zhen brought Yakro to Lin Qi and explained that she was a bandit leader with important information.
• Lin Qi recognized Yakro as Poison Rose Yakro and demanded useful intelligence in exchange for considering sparing her life.
• Yakro told Lin Qi that the White Feather Gang had hired the wanderers and that the Great Ape Gang would attack Crimson Moon Mountain within a day.

Lin Qi learned that the Great Ape Gang and the White Feather Gang were preparing to attack Crimson Moon Mountain with more than a thousand people. He chose to defend the mountain and called the Apprentice-level disciples to war.

• Yakro told Lin Qi that the Great Ape Gang could bring over a thousand fighters, including Quasi-Martial Artists and two sets of A6 Battle Armor, to attack Crimson Moon Mountain within a day or two.
• Yakro urged Lin Qi to abandon Crimson Moon Mountain, but Lin Qi decided to keep him prisoner in Obsidian Martial Arts Hall and provide treatment for his injuries.
• Lin Qi gathered the players and announced that the White Feather Gang had joined forces with the Great Ape Gang to attack Crimson Moon Mountain.
• Lin Qi declared that Obsidian Martial Arts Hall would defend the mountain and invited every Apprentice-level disciple to accept the mission.
• The players erupted with excitement, while some who had not yet reached Apprentice-level asked Lin Qi for more time.